Portal Games POG1375 Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Multicoloured

Product Information

Speaking of walls of text, I was glad to see that the lead cards were toned down a little. There was less day-to-day flavor text on the cards with most of them getting right down to business. I tended to skim past the nonsense in the original game, so this was a welcome change. Final Thoughts: If you were eyeing up the original Detective but were concerned about group play or game length then your prayers have been answered.

Detective is a modern crime board game, designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek, with story by Przemysław Rymer and Jakub Łapot. There are a few other roles that you can only include if you have enough players, such as the Witness and the Accomplice. The Witness starts the game with the knowledge of who the murderer is. But what they don’t know is how the murder was carried out. This may seem like a huge advantage, but if the killer discovers the witness then they can win the game by pointing them out at the end. The accomplice knows as much as the murderer does and can be a fantastic ally in throwing off the scent from certain pieces of evidence. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong takes the best elements of the murder mystery board game and expands them into a great social deduction game. Finally, open the Casebook to Case 1 and read the introduction. At the end of the introduction story, the game will tell you if any additional setup is needed for this story. Often this includes adding reminder tokens to the board and stress tokens to the pool. Game Play In our overview, you will find a spoiler-free description of the game, along with details of the components and gameplay. Our Game Overviews strive to be informative and impartial. This board game tells rich stories - stories you will participate in. Let's hope that you will be able to deduce the end, before there is another crime... The game will challenge you with five different cases. Seemingly unconnected at first, they will unveil an immersive meta-plot based on facts and fiction alike.The immersion of Detective: Season one is fantastic. Although I very much enjoyed the game solo, playing as a group was excellent. The game could even be played remotely over video chat with one person reading out the cards and another reading the information in the database, and another taking notes. Any amateur sleuth who has played Cluedo – called Clue in the US - knows it just doesn’t cut it when it comes to being a good detective board game. Players want juicy mysteries, to piece together clues on a big whiteboard with pieces of red string and have a flip-up notebook at hand. Best detective board games Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game manages to take an underused genre and really take it into an exciting new direction. App integration always runs the risk of being a distraction or novelty instead of improving the game. Yet in Detective, it not only works beautifully, but it helps immerse you even more into the theme than the game would without it. The story line of Detective is pretty intriguing and I really appreciated how not every case played out in the same way. They really throw you some curve balls, just wait until you get to case 3, easily my favorite! Players will follow leads, usually in a variety of directions, until they’ve run out of time. The game ends with players giving their final report. This is handled via a multiple choice questionnaire in the Antares Database. Once filled out, it will give you your final score and let you know if you did well enough to win the case. Time is everything in Detective, following leads and moving around the city all costs you precious time. Game Experience:

When a lead card has a token icon, this is “Dig Deeper,” If you have the correct token in your skill pool or a wild token and the team thinks you should flip it over. You take the token from your collection and remove it from play. Then flip the card and read on in the story. If you choose not to or can not flip the card with the “Dig Deeper,” it is essential to note that you will not be allowed to do this action later in the game. The players can review all lead cards they have already uncovered at any time, but only the sides you have already read. Plot Cards Another element I think is great is the subtle clues placed in each case that will form part of a bigger reveal later in the game. In each case, players will notice a recurring theme that at first may seem insignificant, but, over time and after playing the cases, will begin to make sense and allow players to piece together a case that links all the cases in the game. So improving on the game, comes in the form of additional components. Throughout the game, you're encouraged to keep your theories and evidence, which generally you'll do with pen and paper to keep up and make your connections. The new edition will provide 30 photos of character portraits, that you can use instead of or alongside this to create a mind map, linking your suspects or people of interest. The big thing to know about Detective is that it’s a game of limited information. You just don’t have enough time to investigate every lead you come across. As an avid video gamer who will follow literally every side quest available to him before advancing the main storyline, this was very hard for me to accept. During the first case, I kept thinking that I had no idea how this game was winnable as I had so many unfollowed leads! Skill tokens can be used to “dig deeper” providing more insight on a lead.Take the job of a real detective in a modern setting! Solve mysterious crimes working as an Antares National Investigation Agency team member. Granted the core of Detective is still here. So, if you didn’t like the time-limited lead system or the digital integration, then this probably won’t be the game for you. But for everyone else, Detective: Season One is a flat out better experience than its predecessor and one I hope Portal Games focuses on going forward. They managed to improve upon an already great game and make it one I really enjoyed playing. This is the version of Detective I want to play and it’s excellent.

Final Score: 4.5 Stars – A more streamlined version of the original Detective that lets players focus on the fun and moves the rest to the side. If I was to ask anyone to name a board game that saw players attempting to identify a killer by analysing both the crime scene and the clues left behind, you could be sure the majority of those people would answer Cluedo (Clue for our American friends). While this game would fit into this category, it’s fair to say it doesn’t involve any “real” detective work and the way you get to find the killer is a frantic finger-pointing race. Portal Games want to change that.Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game is the latest offering from Portal Games, with the aim of getting players to take on the role of detectives and will have you using REAL detective skills to solve crimes, both present and historic. September 20 th, Manchester, England. A Mysterious parcel has arrived at HQ. Within it is a box containing the clues to three potential murders. My colleagues and I must work to solve these crimes and provide justice for the bereaved families. It's time to grab a strong coffee and start piecing together what's happened here. It's time to be a detective, in Detective: Seasons One! Digging through the Archives